According to Entrepreneur magazine, leveraging media is one of the most successful ways to attract new business for your product or service. But simply writing about your product or service will not boost your bottom line. Here are five “do-it-yourself” tips for spreading the word, courtesy of Entrepreneur.
1. Know Your Audience. The more specific you can be about which community of people should use your product, the easier it will be to identify the media you need to work with.
2. Target the Right Media. Find out which media outlets your target market typically reads, views or listens to. In many cases, you’ll be able to identify specific journals or programs for the industry you are targeting.
3. Establish Your Product as Unique. It’s important to be able to prove your product is × times faster, better, cleaner or more cost-effective than your competitors’ products or than the industry standard.
4. Use Testimonials. All other things being equal, testimonials are among the strongest ways to enhance the credibility of a product.
5. Craft an Appropriate Press Release. Prepare a release that can be printed “as is.” Start with a quality headline and then give a quick summary of your “story.” Journalists receive hundreds of news releases every day and spend an average of 7 seconds speed-reading each of them, so the first 25 words are critical. For more information on public relations, read “PR With Punch,” by Lisa Druxman, MA, in the May 2007 issue of IDEA Fitness Manager.
Ryan Halvorson
Ryan Halvorson is an award-winning writer and editor, and IDEA's director of event programming.
